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Israeli Fire Kills Boy, 8, During Clashes in Nablus

An 8-year-old Palestinian boy was killed today when Israeli soldiers fired at crowds of children throwing stones as they returned from school in the West Bank city of Nablus.

It was one of several clashes today in Nablus, in which seven people were reported wounded by fire from Israeli tanks and guns, as soldiers worked to impose the continuing curfew there.

A military spokesman said tonight that the soldiers returned fire after three unidentified ''explosive devices'' as well as several firebombs had been thrown at them as they sat in a jeep. At least one Palestinian witness said that the boy did not seem to be among the stone throwers, and that he had been hit more than 100 yards from the Jeep.

The boy was reportedly shot in the chest and died shortly afterward at a hospital. In separate clashes, two other Palestinians were seriously wounded; a 28-year-old man was hit in the head and a 39-year-old woman in the chest, reportedly by tank fire.

The clashes underscored the tension around the West Bank, as the Israeli military stepped up patrols and tightened curfews in the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Thursday in which 11 people were killed.

In Bethlehem, where the bomber lived, a reoccupation that began on Friday appeared to ease slightly today as tanks and armored personnel carriers left the center of the city. Residents flocked to the streets to shop, but border police warned citizens that the curfew was not over.

The military said tonight that it had only moved its soldiers around, and had not withdrawn from Bethlehem, though it says it hopes to do so by Christmas to allow tourists to celebrate at the site where Christians believe Christ was born.

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[Several dozen Israeli tanks and armored vehicles backed by helicopter gunships swept into the central Gaza Strip early on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing Palestinian witnesses and security sources. The aim of the incursion, near Jewish settlements, was not immediately clear.]

Among scores of arrests since the weekend, the Israeli military reported that it had apprehended two activists with Hamas. In Nablus, soldiers arrested Firas Fidi, 26, who the military said had sent several suicide bombers to Jerusalem, including one to an attack in June in which 19 people were killed on a bus.

In Tubas, the military said it had arrested Muhammad Zilendaklini, a Hamas member who officials say sent two bombers in a car that exploded after being stopped by the border police near Kibbutz Metzer on Nov. 10. No Israelis were hurt in that attack, though several hours later a lone gunman killed five people at the kibbutz.

Also today, the police said they had arrested an Israeli settler, Yehuda Levine, 22, and a minor suspected of stealing shoes in a string of robberies from Palestinian shops in Hebron. The police said they had also arrested three other Israeli settlers over the weekend near the Elkana settlement, east of Tel Aviv in the West Bank, who were found with 15 uprooted olive trees in the back of a truck.

Gil Kleiman, a police spokesman, said the men had told the police that they had permission from the Palestinian owner of the orchard to remove the trees, which were taken from the ground whole.

''The police have some suspicions this is really the true story,'' Mr. Kleiman said.